Biography

” It comes to grasp between two colors their universal denominator , the transcendence , the balance point where all light harmonize “

Antonio Meneghetti (1936 – 2013) was born in Italy and ever since the early years of his life spent in the Veneto region he exhibited an interest in learning trades that allowed him to become familiar with many different materials, from wood to iron to ceramics. He studied in Assisi, a town that was instrumental in his artistic training which was later consolidated in Florence, Venice and Rome. Here he opened his first studio in the late 1970s.
He participated in various exhibitions at prestigious museums and institutions in Italy and abroad, such as the Rocca Paolina in Perugia; Castel dell’Ovo in Naples; Palazzo della Civiltà in Rome; the Corderie dell’arsenale and the Palazzo Ducale in Venice; as well as in Saint Petersburg, Brasilia and Beijing, to name just a few. He received three Culture Awards by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (1980, 1987 and 1989).
Art crtic Guido Curto wrote: “Antonio Meneghetti was a joyful, generous and gifted man and these strong personality traits can be seen in his artistic activity. For him, art was chiefly painting, but it was also glasswork (in Murano!) and pure sculpture, which he pursued having studied and gained first-hand knowledge of the great history of Italian art, especially while studying in Rome. During his studies there in history, theology and philosophy, he began as a young man to measure himself against the ancient masters and music. However, it is immediately evident from his work that he was seeking no “mannerisms” or styles from the past to follow or neo-avantgardes to imitate religiously”.
He was a deep lover of life in all its aspects and a fine observer of the world and of human nature. His paintings are characterized by abstract strokes of color, while the human being stands at the center of the design objects. He said of his art: “It is about seizing the universal denominator, the transcendence, the center of a light balance between two colors where they come together.”
The themes of Meneghetti’s artwork are diverse and range from the figurative to the abstract, while his black and white paintings are essential and absolute and represent his highest expression. In Meneghetti’s sculptures emptiness is fundamental and very often it is the most prominent feature, reminiscent of the protagonism of white on canvas.